Press Release

September 2008, Philadelphia, PA – Locks Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings, gouaches, and works on paper by Philadelphia artist, Sarah McEneaney. Dog Heaven will be on view November 7 through December 20, 2008. There will be a reception for the artist on Friday, November 7, 2008, from 5:30 to 7:30pm.

In her work, Sarah McEneaney takes on the project of autobiographical narrative, exploring the themes of self-portraiture, home life, pets, the studio, her neighborhood and artistic community. For the paintings in her show at Locks Gallery, the first show in Philadelphia since her retrospective show at the Institute of Contemporary Art, the focus is on Philadelphia subjects and stories.

McEneaney’s paintings are executed in what some have characterized as a faux-naive style, though in a contemporary fashion. Using egg tempera paint to create precise and finely detailed figures, and a distorted and panoramic perspective to maximize the space of the canvas, each painting is another pictorial record of her life. McEneaney has said about her work, “The biography is absolutely edited, embellished, fantasized, and remembered.” For the show Dog Heaven, McEneaney\'s paintings show her reflection on the passing of time - documenting personal artistic accomplishments, the development of her paintings in the studio, and relationships with beloved pets.

Sarah McEneaney, received her certificate from Pennsylvania Acedemy of the Fine Arts in 1979. She has had solo museum shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Mills College Art Museum, CA; and the List Gallery, Swarthmore College, PA. She has been in over seventy group shows throughout the mid-Atlantic region. McEneaney is the recipient of the Yaddo Fellowship (2006, 2005, 1997, 1995), the Pew Fellowship in the Arts (2002, 2001, 1993), the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (2000), the MacDowell Colony Fellowship (1998), and the Chianti Foundation Residency (2009), among others. Sarah McEneaney previously exhibited at Locks Gallery in Philadelphia New Talent (1979), her first gallery show.